Improvement in pile-drivers



NITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.,

STEPHEN E. BAKER, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

IMPRQVEMENT lN PlLEeDRlVERS.`

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 139,553, dated J une 17, 1873; application filed December 1G, 1872.

To all whom it 'may concern:

Be it known that I, STEPHEN E. BAKER, of Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Pile-Drivers, of which the, following is a specification:

The nature of the present invention consists in providing a pile-driving machine with an adjustable slip-lock, whereby the hammer may be readily detached from the hoisting-lock at any desired point in height, so that the force ofthe blow to be struck is determined by the distance which the hammer falls, in a high or large machine as well as in a small one; and, further, in providing the slip-lock with hinged arms, whereby said lock is held in position between the guides so as not to slide upward when unlocking the levers of the hoisting-lock.

Pile-driving machines, as now constructed, are provided with stationary slip-locks at the upper ends of the guides, and consequently the same force of blow at each descent of the hammer is necessarily struck, unless the hoisting-lock be loosened from the hammer before it comes in contact with the slip-lock; but in such a case a man must mount the guides of `the machine and loosen the elevating-lock with a bar. By means of my adjustable sliplock this latter operation, which is both laborious and dangerous, is obvated, while at the same. time much more labor can be performed.

In the drawings, Figure lis an elevation of an ordinary pile-driver provided with my adjustable slip-lock Fig. 2 a cross-section of the slip-lock taken through the horizontal line x a, Fig l.

L P represent the foundation, N the braces and A A the guides, of.' an ordinary piledriving machine. K represents the ordinary hammer, and I J the ordinary hoistinglock 5 all of which are old devices in common use, and therefore require no particular description. The adjustable slip-lock consists of a yoke, D, rightly fastened to depending shoulder-pieces C C, and of arms E E pivoted or jointed to the shoulders at Z, as shown in Fig.` l. The shoulders C C and their depending arms E are held in position to slide between the guides by means of two face-plates, B,

which are riveted fast to the shoulders at nu, and are provided with slots m m, F1g.1 1, through which guide-pins project outward from the arms. The platesB are made to embrace the guides A, and one of them is repre` sented as broken away, toshow how the arms E are jointed to the shoulders C C, at Z.

The operation is as follows: A rope, G, is fastened to the yoke D and brought over the top of the machine, and fastened in any convenient manner after the slip-lock has been` adjusted at the required height. which supports the hoisting-lock, is pnt through the adjustable slip-lock between the i plates B, and is operated in the usual manner. When the levers I I of the hoisting-lock come in contact with the insides of the pivoted arms E the latter are forced' outward with such force that the friction will hold them in fixed j p positions, while theleversIare forced inward y to unlock their lower ends from the hammer In Fig. 1 the slip-lock is adjusted at the top ofthe machine; but it may be moved down@ to any desired point, as, for instance, to the l dotted lines F. r

Having thus described my invention, what forth.

STEPHEN E. BAKER. Witnesses:

S. M. STREET, G. L. CHAPIN.

The rope H, i 

